JPH06201599A - In-pipe work device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] An object of the present invention is to provide an inspection device that can travel inside a pipe such as a gas pipe by itself and can easily and internally photograph a long distance inside. [Constitution] The inspection device 1 is composed of a traveling device 2 and an operating device 4, and the traveling device 2 is provided with a traveling mechanism capable of traveling by itself, a camera 8 and the like, while the operating device 4 is instructed to operate the traveling device 2. The controller 34, the receiver 38, and the like are provided, and signals between them are transmitted by radio waves. As a result, it is not necessary to route a long cable, and the work can be easily performed and the inspection of a long section can be performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an in-pipe working device for working inside a pipe such as a gas pipe, and mainly for running inside the pipe by itself to photograph an image of the inside. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A gas pipe buried in the ground or the like may be corroded or damaged by the influence of moisture in soil, vibration of a traveling vehicle, or the like, and a pipe wall may be punctured or cracked. However,
In the case of a gas pipe, a gas leak may occur after a crack occurs, which may lead to a major accident. Therefore, it is necessary to inspect, discover, and repair it before that.

On the other hand, digging a road for inspection is very expensive and time-consuming, and it is sometimes difficult to carry out the inspection under or inside a building. Therefore, recently, an inspection device has been developed which runs inside the gas pipe by itself. This is an inspection device equipped with a traveling mechanism and an imaging device that can travel inside the pipe, send this inspection device into the gas pipe, shoot while traveling, send the image of the inside taken to the ground, and the inspector on the ground By inspecting, the inside of the pipe can be inspected without digging down the ground.

[0004]

However, since the conventional inspection device is connected with a cable, a control signal from the ground is sent through the cable, and an image taken by the photographing device is obtained by the cable. When the running distance in the pipe becomes long, the inspection device has to pull a cable with a length equal to the running distance in the pipe, and it becomes very heavy, and in the bent portion of the pipe, The frictional resistance between them becomes extremely large, and a large driving force is required to run against them, and there are problems that the device becomes large and the inspection distance must be shortened by shortening the cable. It was

Further, in the inspection, the end of the pipe must be pulled out to the ground in order to put in the inspection device, and therefore the ground is excavated or a part of the wall surface in which the pipe is embedded is broken. If the running limit of the device is short, it will be necessary to excavate or drill at many points, which will increase the labor and cost. In addition, for inspection, prepare a cable in advance on the ground to send it into the pipe,
Then, the cable has to be unwound or wound up as the inspection device moves inside the tube, which is very troublesome.

[0006]

In view of the above, according to the present invention, between an actuating device that is fed into a pipe to perform work inside the pipe and an actuating device that inputs an instruction for actuating the actuating device from outside the pipe, At least the operation signal output from the operating device to the actuating device is transmitted by the wireless communication means to configure the in-pipe working device.

[0007]

Since the operation signal sent from the operating device to the operating device, and further the video signal sent from the operating device to the operating device, are transmitted and received by radio waves, the operating device does not need to run a cable inside the pipe, and the radio waves reach As long as it is inside, you can travel to a very long distance and perform work such as displaying images inside the pipe, so you can increase the working distance such as in-pipe inspection,
Moreover, the work in the pipe can be carried out very easily.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the in-pipe working apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows an inspection device 1 as a pipe working device. The inspection device 1 includes a traveling device 2 and an operating device 4, and the traveling device 2 and the operating device 4 are configured to be capable of transmitting and receiving signals to each other by wireless communication means.

The operating device 4 includes an antenna 32, a controller 34, a control device 36, a receiver 38, and a recording device 40.
Etc. The controller 34 is the traveling device 2
Is an input device for instructing forward movement, backward movement, traveling speed, etc., and is provided with operation switches (not shown).
Other cameras 8 and lights 2 installed on the traveling device 2
It also has an operation switch (not shown) for operating 0 (both will be described later). The image receiver 38 displays an image in the pipe that the traveling device 2 has captured and transmitted, and the recording device 40 is a device that records this image.

FIG. 4 shows the control device 36. As shown in FIG. 4, the control device 36 includes a receiver 42, a transmitter 44, and a control circuit 43 for controlling them. The receiver 42 has a receiver 38 and a recording device 40, and the transmitter 44 has a receiver 38. Controller 34 is connected, via the loop-shaped antenna 32 connected to these receiver 42 and transmitter 44,
The transmitter 44 transmits the operation instruction content from the controller 34, while the receiver 42 receives an image or the like from the traveling device 2 and sends the image to the receiver 38 or the recording device 40. .

Next, the traveling device 2 is shown in FIG. The traveling device 2 has a cocoon-shaped shape with a hollow central portion,
Wheels 6 are provided at four places below. Further, the traveling device 2 is
The camera 8 is provided at the front, the DC brushless motor 10 is provided at the center of the inside, and the antenna 24 is provided at the rear.

The camera 8 is mounted with its photographing direction facing forward, and a transparent protective cover 18 is mounted on the front surface for protection, and an illumination light 20 is provided around the protective cover 18. It is installed.

Gearboxes 14 connected to the wheels 6 are provided in front of and behind the motor 10, respectively.
The drive shaft 12 engages with each gear box 14 to regulate the rotation of the motor 10 to rotate the wheels 6. The wheel 6 has magnetism on the outer periphery,
When traveling in a tube formed of a magnetic material such as iron, it is adsorbed on the inner surface of the tube and can travel reliably without slipping even in an inclined state.

A battery 16 for driving is provided below the motor 10 to serve as a power source for driving the motor 10 and a power source for supplying power to other devices. A control device 22 is housed in the upper portion of the motor 10. The controller 22 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.
Is composed of a transmitter 26, a receiver 28, and a control circuit 27 for controlling them. A camera 8 is connected to the transmitter 26, and a camera 8, a light 20, and a motor 10 are connected to the receiver 28. The receiver 28 receives an operation signal from the operation device 4 via the antenna 24 connected to the transmitter 26 and the receiver 28, and operates each part of the camera 8, the light 20, the motor 10, etc. according to the instruction. On the other hand, the transmitter 26 is adapted to transmit an image captured by the camera 8 on radio waves.

Next, the radio waves used for transmission and reception between the traveling device 2 and the operating device 4 will be described. The following formula is a formula for obtaining the lowest frequency of the radio wave that can be propagated in a pipe such as a gas pipe.

Frequency (Hz) = speed of light (m / sec) /
{1.706 × caliber of tube (m)} That is, it indicates that at a frequency equal to or lower than the frequency obtained by this equation, it is impossible to propagate in the tube of this diameter. When actually calculated using this formula,
For example, in the case of a tube having a vacuum of 10 cm and having a vacuum inside, the light velocity of 3.0 × 10 8 is substituted into the above equation to obtain 1.758.
A frequency of GHz is obtained. Experiments have shown that even if a radio wave having a frequency of 1.758 GHz or lower is transmitted into a tube having a diameter of 10 cm, it does not propagate well, whereas if it is transmitted at a frequency higher than this value, it can propagate well. I was confirmed. The typical city gas components are methane 88.5%, ethane 4.6%, propane 5.
It was 4% and butane 1.5%, and it was confirmed that even in the case of a tube in which this gas is sealed, radio waves can be satisfactorily propagated if the frequency is equal to or higher than the frequency based on the above formula.

Next, the operation of the inspection device 1 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the pipe 3 to be inspected
The traveling device 2 is fed from the end portion of the, and an instruction is transmitted from the operation device 4 using the controller 34 to cause traveling. Specifically, the controller 34 is operated to move the traveling device 2 forward, and when the inspection point is reached, the light 20 is turned on and the camera 8 photographs the inside of the tube 3. At this time, when inspecting all of the tubes 3, the traveling device 2 is set in the photographing state from the beginning.
Run. The image captured by the camera 8 is sent to the transmitter 26, where it is put on a radio wave and sent to the operating device 4 via the antenna 24. In the operation device 4, the receiver 3
This image is displayed by 8 and is inspected, and recording is performed by the recording device 40 if necessary.

Therefore, the traveling device 2 can be instructed by the radio wave from the operating device 4 on the ground and can send the photographed image to the ground by using the radio wave. Therefore, it is not necessary to run the cable as in the conventional case, and it is very simple. In addition, the inside of the pipe 3 can be easily inspected. Moreover, without being limited by the weight or length of the cable, it is possible to carry out an inspection of a very long distance within the range where the radio wave can reach, and the radio wave can be obtained by using the frequency obtained by the above formula. The inside of the pipe 3 can be reliably transmitted. Furthermore, since it is not necessary to wind or wind the cable on the ground, the work can be carried out very easily.

Although the inside of the pipe has been described in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the inspection inside the pipe, and other works such as repair and removal of clogging may be performed.

[0022]

According to the in-pipe working apparatus of the present invention, there is provided between an operating device for performing work inside a pipe such as a gas pipe and an operating device for instructing the operation of the operating device from outside the pipe. Since at least the operation signal output from the operating device to the actuating device is transmitted by the wireless communication means, the actuating device fed into the pipe does not need to route the cable inside the pipe, and the work inside the pipe is not required. It is quick and easy, and the actuator can be made small and lightweight, and since the movement distance is not limited by the length of the cable, the work can be performed over a long distance in the pipe. Moreover, there is no need to perform work associated with cable processing such as unwinding and winding up outside the pipe, and therefore work on the ground can be made extremely simple.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a traveling device.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a work situation by a traveling device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an inspection device.

FIG. 4 is an electric circuit diagram of the operating device.

FIG. 5 is an electric circuit diagram of the traveling device.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1 inspection device 2 traveling device 3 tube 4 operating device 6 wheels 8 camera

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An operating device that is fed into a pipe to perform work inside the pipe, and an operating device that inputs an instruction for operating the operating device from outside the pipe, and outputs at least the operating device to the operating device. An in-pipe working apparatus, characterized in that the operation signal to be transmitted is transmitted by wireless communication means. 2. A main body having an outer diameter capable of being fed into a pipe to be inspected,
A traveling mechanism capable of traveling forward and backward, an image capturing means capable of capturing an image of the inside of the inspection pipe, and a receiving unit for receiving a signal from the ground,
A traveling unit including a control unit that performs control based on the signal and a transmission unit that transmits the image captured by the image capturing unit to the ground, an input unit that instructs the operation of the traveling unit, and an input unit that is input by the input unit. 2. An operating device arranged on the ground, which comprises a transmitting unit for transmitting the signal to the traveling device and a receiving unit for receiving the image captured by the image capturing unit. In-pipe working device.